Hippocrates Trivia
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49 free Hippocrates trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hippocrates trivia quiz covers the Greek physician from Kos who is called the Father of Medicine, and the school and writings that carry his name. It follows the son of a physician trained at the island's asklepieion, the idea that disease has natural causes rather than divine ones, the four humours, the doctrine of the crisis, prognosis and case histories, the treatments for fevers, fractures and haemorrhoids, the seventy-odd works of the Hippocratic Corpus, and the Oath that most modern scholars think he did not write but that doctors still swear versions of today. The easy questions are ones most people know: his title, his island, his oath. The medium ones ask about his family, the humours, his methods and the signs and devices named after him. The hard ones dig into Soranus, the Knidian school, Primum non nocere, the Declaration of Geneva, the plane tree of Kos and the dragon legend in Mandeville's Travels. It suits a medical-school icebreaker, a history of science round or anyone who has ever been told to feed a cold and starve a fever. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01By what title is Hippocrates traditionally known?
The Father of Medicine
Hippocrates is traditionally called the Father of Medicine; the Hippocratic Corpus associated with his school stressed prognosis, careful clinical observation and the recording of case histories.
Q 02On which Greek island was Hippocrates born around 460 BC?
Kos
Hippocrates was born on Kos, in the Dodecanese off the coast of Asia Minor, around 460 BC, into a family of physicians.
Q 03What ethical pledge, taken by doctors in modified forms, is credited to Hippocrates?
The Hippocratic Oath
The Hippocratic Oath, sworn by Apollo the physician and all the gods, is dated by scholars to the late fifth or fourth century BC and was probably not written by Hippocrates himself.
Q 04He was named after his grandfather; what suffix distinguishes the famous doctor from him?
II (the second)
Two of his grandsons were also called Hippocrates, numbered III and IV.
Q 05Who was Hippocrates's first biographer and the source of most personal details about him?
Soranus of Ephesus
Soranus wrote in the 2nd century AD, some 500 years after his subject.
Q 06What was the profession of Hippocrates's father, Heraclides?
Physician
Heraclides was a physician, as was Hippocrates's grandfather, Hippocrates I; tradition holds that the boy learned medicine from both men.
Q 07Which two contemporaries mention Hippocrates in passing in their writings?
Plato and Aristotle
Plato mentions him in two dialogues as a famous physician who taught for a fee, and Aristotle in the Politics calls him 'the Great'.
Q 08According to Galen, who was Hippocrates's true successor?
His son-in-law Polybus
His son-in-law Polybus, to whom On the Nature of Man is attributed, was called Hippocrates's true successor; his sons Thessalus and Draco were also his pupils.
Q 09Where did Hippocrates probably die?
Larissa
Hippocrates probably died at Larissa in Thessaly around 370 BC; accounts put his age at 83, 85 or 90, and some claimed he lived past 100.
Q 10Hippocrates is credited as the first to believe that diseases were caused by what?
Natural factors, not gods or superstition
Hippocrates is credited with holding that disease arose from natural factors, not gods or superstition; the Corpus treats illness as a product of diet, environment and the body's own balance.
Q 11What were the four humours in Hippocratic medicine?
Blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile
The four humours were blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile; illness was an excess or deficiency of one, and the theory persisted until nineteenth-century cellular pathology and germ theory displaced it.
Q 12Ancient Greek medicine was split between the Koan tradition of Hippocrates and which rival tradition?
The Knidian
The Knidian school, based at Cnidus on the Anatolian coast, stressed diagnosis and classifying diseases, while the Koan school of Hippocrates focused on prognosis and care of the patient.
Q 13Why did Greek medicine in Hippocrates's time know almost nothing of human anatomy?
Q 21Shakespeare alludes to the 'Hippocratic face' of a dying person when describing whose death in Henry V?
Falstaff
Falstaff's death is reported by Mistress Quickly in Henry V ('his nose was as sharp as a pen'), echoing the Hippocratic face, the pinched look of the dying described in Prognostics.
Q 22Hippocrates is described as the first documented surgeon of which part of the body?
The chest
Hippocrates is called the first documented chest surgeon: the Corpus describes draining an empyema by cutting between the ribs and inserting a metal tube, the principle of later chest-drain surgery.
Q 23The Hippocratic Corpus's discussion of the rectal speculum is the earliest recorded reference to what?
Endoscopy
A taboo forbade dissecting humans
A Greek taboo forbade dissecting humans, so Hippocratic doctors knew little anatomy or physiology; human dissection was first practised systematically at Alexandria in the third century BC.
Q 14In Hippocratic medicine, what was a 'crisis'?
The turning point when a patient would either die or recover
A crisis was the turning point when a patient would either die or recover, often marked by a sweat or discharge; crises were expected on 'critical days' counted from the onset.
Q 15What Latin phrase sums up the Hippocratic idea that the body can heal itself?
Vis medicatrix naturae
Vis medicatrix naturae, 'the healing power of nature', expresses the Hippocratic belief that the body rebalances itself; treatment aimed to ease that process with rest and immobilisation.
Q 16What mixture did Hippocrates prescribe as a generalised treatment?
Honey and vinegar
Honey and vinegar, mixed as oxymel, was a stock Hippocratic remedy, prescribed for many complaints in the treatise on regimen in acute diseases.
Q 17Which folk saying about eating and illness is sometimes traced to Hippocrates?
'Feed a cold, starve a fever'
'Feed a cold, starve a fever' is often traced to Hippocratic advice that fasting helped fever patients, fever then being regarded as a disease in itself rather than a symptom.
Q 18What device named after Hippocrates used tension to set broken bones?
The Hippocratic bench
The Hippocratic bench, or scamnum, used winches and straps to apply traction, stretching the limb or spine so fractures and dislocations could be set.
Q 19Hippocrates reportedly measured a patient's pulse while taking a history to discover what?
Whether the patient was lying
Hippocrates is said to have felt the pulse during the case history to tell whether the patient was lying; he also recorded complexion, pains, movement and excretions with care.
Q 20What diagnostic sign of chronic lung disease is Hippocrates credited with first describing?
Clubbing of the fingers
Clubbing of the fingers, noted in the Corpus in a patient with empyema, was the first recorded sign of chronic suppurative lung disease; clubbed fingers are also called Hippocratic fingers.
The Corpus's mention of a rectal speculum is the earliest recorded reference to endoscopy, looking inside the body with an instrument; haemorrhoids were treated by ligation and cautery with a hot iron.
Q 24Which condition did Hippocrates help demote from a divine affliction to a common brain disorder?
Epilepsy
On the Sacred Disease argued that epilepsy, then called the sacred disease, arose from the brain rather than from the gods, and that the brain was the seat of intelligence.
Q 25Which popular quotation attributed to Hippocrates is probably a misquotation?
'Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food'
'Let food be your medicine, and medicine be your food' appears nowhere in the Hippocratic Corpus; the slogan is first recorded in the twentieth century, and 'Walking is man's best medicine' is likewise of unknown origin.
Q 26Roughly how many treatises make up the Hippocratic Corpus?
About seventy
The Hippocratic Corpus holds about seventy treatises, assembled in the third century BC and written by many hands over more than a century; one scholar counted nineteen authors.
Q 27Why are the Corpus's many treatises all attributed to Hippocrates?
An Alexandrian librarian may have filed them all under him because of his fame
An Alexandrian librarian may have filed them all under him because of his fame; the treatises were written by many hands over decades, and none can be securely assigned to Hippocrates himself.
Q 28Which of these is a genuine treatise in the Hippocratic Corpus?
On Airs, Waters and Places
On Airs, Waters and Places is a genuine Hippocratic treatise linking climate, water and locality to health; the other titles are works by Aristotle and Lucretius.
Q 29Which two principles of medical ethics does the Hippocratic Oath establish?
Confidentiality and non-maleficence
The Hippocratic Oath binds physicians to confidentiality and non-maleficence, swearing to keep secret what they see in practice and to keep patients from harm; it is the earliest Western statement of medical ethics.
Q 30Does the phrase 'First do no harm' (Primum non nocere) appear in the original oath?
No, though a similar intention is vowed
A related phrase, 'either help or do not harm the patient', appears in the Epidemics.